IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE.

While it is true that most of us are not sports people/athletes, we are similar in that we also reach the same level of fatigue because of our various daily lifestyle stressors,  such as lack of sleep, stressful jobs and poor diet,  to name but a few.  Unlike athletes, though our symptoms are not likely to be limited to just fatigue.  Other symptoms are colds and flu's, allergies, aches and pains etc.  Stress is normally viewed as a negative however we need stressors for positive effects on our health. An example of a good stress  is that of exercise which is needed, for example to help us maintain an ideal weight, have strong bones and keep us flexible and mobile.  The bad stress of exercise can be that of over training, which can cause injury for example. Indeed lack of exercise would also cause a stress to our body. The diagram below shows how these lifestyle stressors affect our health.

These stressors typically show themselves as symptoms which are a warning to us that things are not right. When they are left unchecked and are allowed to  continue, over a period of time they will lead to bigger problems such as cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and other degenerative diseases. Using the principles of building health will Insha Allah (God willing) help us to recover from these symptoms enabling us to stay healthy and free of these diseases.   As many of the teachings of the Prophet (saw) indicate;  prevention is better than cure.

May Allah (swt) grant you all the best of health.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE.

To get a better understanding of what we mean when we talk about building health, I will relate it to the Recovery Diet concept.

The Recovery Diet concept has come about through interactions with sports people/athletes who are always interested in improving their performance and in being in the best state of health and fitness.  It is worth pointing out here that this is something we should all be striving for.

Every sports person/ athlete has a present or current fitness level which they take into their training session, race, match, etc.  Whenever they are undertaking any of these activities they will reach a stage of fatigue during or at the end of their activity. Their entire system will become exhausted.  From that point of fatigue/exhaustion, their primary objective is to  recover as quickly as possible.  When they recover correctly their body will overcompensate, i.e. their body will recover above and beyond their previous level of fitness.   However if that recovery is poor or insufficient they will fall short of their previous fitness level (see figure 1).

There are various lifestyle factors that result in this poor recovery.  The main one is usually inadequate nutrition.  Failure to address their nutrition/diet  (and other lifestyle factors) properly while continuing with their sporting activities over a period of time will lead to further  poor recovery which ultimately will lead to poor results (see figure 2).

You may be thinking;  'this is all very interesting but how does it relate to me as I am not a sports person?'  This is a very good question which will be addressed in Part 2.

May Allah (swt) grant you all the best of health.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE.

Allah (subhannah wa ta'ala (swt) - Glorified and exalted is he) gave us a healthy body as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said  'The first question that is put to the worshipper on the day of rising about the pleasures of this world is: Did I not give you a healthy body? And the next is: Did I not satisfy you with cool water?'

 Allah (swt) also gave us provisions along with guidance on lifestyle practices in order to maintain our health as He said in the Quran 'O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you'. 2:168 (Pickthall)

Unfortunately due to various factors in our lives most of us have some form of  ailment or illness which means most of us are not as healthy as we could be. Some of these factors are things that we may have little control over, such as the different way food is manufactured and farmed today with so many added chemicals, depleted nutrients in soils, toxins in our environment and foods being mass produced so that their nutritional value is severely reduced.

However the good news is that Allah (swt) is merciful and does not leave us helpless; as the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said 'Every disease has a cause and a cure'.  Therefore although in many ways we have deviated from the examples we were given about how to live healthy lives, we still have the free will and the God given intellect to discern what is wholesome and lawful and what is not and to choose to take the right steps to rebuild our health as Allah (swt) commanded us to do.

This can be quite difficult because we are frequently distracted by various things throughout the day. We at Healthy Ummah are hoping to help you with this task. Yes this is quite a task but we hope and pray that Allah (swt) gives us the hikmah (wisdom) to do this and forgives us for any mistakes. We also pray that Allah (swt) grants you all the best of health.

May Allah (swt) grant you all the best of health.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE.

If you want to build a healthier life and are asking where to start. Then don't worry you have already started. Indeed we are already actively doing things each and every day that affect our health. So if what you are doing is not affecting your health in the manner that you desire then what is needed is a change of direction.

A handy tool to always have at your disposal is a little notebook. In this notebook simply write down what you are doing. For example if you want to know what you are eating; Every time you eat something, write it down. Why? Because most of us are not fully aware of what we are eating even though we think we are. We are often on automatic pilot when we put things into our mouths. How many of us while fasting have accidentally eaten something? Mercifully when unintentional we are able to continue fasting. However if we continue to eat on a daily basis without awareness we can easily fall into habits which can be detrimental to our health.  Using this handy tool (notebook), we can start to become conscious of what we are putting into our bodies and start to identify where we can make small changes which when they become habits will have a positive effect on our health.

May Allah (swt) grant you all the best of health.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE.

The companion of the Prophet (s.a.w) Abu Bakr (RA) said: "Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile." This time that we are living is known as the age of information. We can access most of this information freely at the touch of a button.  We at Healthy Ummah believe that everyone should have knowledge or access to information which leads to knowledge that we can act upon to improve our physical and indeed spiritual health. As Imam Ghazali (RA) said: "Let information lead to action not knowledge."

A big part of our health depends on the food we eat and information about food is out there in abundance.  We are all taking action when it comes to eating food.  We ate today, yesterday, the day before and inshallah we will eat tomorrow.  However there is a lot of misinformation about what is and isn’t good for our health.  With so many people out there with various illnesses and a proliferation of diseases that were very rare or unheard of until recently, such as many autoimmune diseases,  it is clear that there may be some faults with the knowledge we use to decide what to eat and when.  Some of this is because of clever marketing aimed more at lining the pockets of company executives and shareholders and some due to well intentioned people using old or faulty research which has since been shown to be incorrect or at least questionable.

According to Islam our bodies have a right over us, which means it is our duty to make sure that what we are doing with them and putting into them is not harmful.  We also have a duty to share knowledge as the following hadith indicates.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "A servant of God will remain standing on the Day of Judgment until he is questioned about his (time on earth) and how he used it; about his knowledge and how he utilized it; about his wealth and from where he acquired it and in what (activities) he spent it; and about his body and how he used it." - Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 148

Our intention at Healthy Ummah is to highlight and share useful and pertinent information that can benefit the health of the whole community (Ummah is the Arabic word for community).   But while information is all well and good nothing will be achieved without taking action.   This is often a big stumbling block for most people.  We often know (or think we know) what we should do but lots of things get in the way, to prevent us from taking the necessary steps to achieve our health goals. Therefore a big part of our aim is to help people focus on the action part of the above Imam Ghazali quote.  We will give people the tools and skills needed to transform this knowledge be it current or traditional into active steps which enable them to live a healthy life.

May Allah (swt) grant you all the best of health.